1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless handsets and more specifically to a system and method for conserving power in wireless handsets.
2. Related Art
The advent of wireless personal communications devices has revolutionized the telecommunications industry. Cellular, PCS and other services provide wireless personal communications to businesses and individuals at home, in the office, on the road, and virtually anywhere the wireless network reaches. Wireless telephone subscribers no longer have to stop at pay telephones along the road, or wait until they return home or to the office to check messages and return important business calls. Instead, wireless subscribers carry out their day to day business from their cars, from the jobsite, while walking along the airport concourse, and just about anywhere their communication signals are accessible.
Thus, it is no surprise that since the introduction of the cellular telephone service, the number of wireless telephone subscribers has increased steadily. Indeed, the number of wireless telephone subscribers is staggering and continues to increase daily. In fact, many households have multiple wireless telephones in addition to their conventional land-line services.
Because of the enormous and continually increasing market size, there is fierce competition among hardware manufacturers and service providers. In an attempt to lure customers, most providers offer handsets with desirable features or attributes such as small size, light weight, longer battery life, speed dial, and so forth. More recent additions to the marketplace include multi-functional handsets that provide pocket-organizer functions integrated into the wireless handset.
As more and more features are added, and as package size diminishes, battery life becomes a more critical factor in the design of the handset. This criticality can be attributed to two causes: the addition of power-consuming features is outpacing advances in battery technology; and the smaller package sizes also require smaller battery dimensions, thus impacting battery life.